Gary’s Story

Gary C. Norman, Esq. L.L.M., is a resolute public servant gifted with the ability to bring people of unrelated interests together. Gary started his public service career as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2000 with the federal government after graduating from Wright State University and Cleveland State University. He has the unique brand of serving the public with a special sidekick, guide dog Bowie.

In 2021, the Baltimore Business Journal recognized Gary as a Leader in Diversity. He has long shared the disability experience – its benefits and challenges – in a society not yet as accessible as it should be for service animal teams. Gary is known for his semi-regular salons in which he brokers thought leaders, including, the disabled and the able, having mentored a range of law students with disabilities. In 2020, he received the Administrator’s Award at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for his work on healthcare accessibility and quality policy related to people with disabilities.

Gary served as chair of the Board of Commissioners at the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights from 2018 to 2021, co-leading the Agency to a new three-year strategic plan. He also formally served on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission as one of his concurrent roles as chair. In 2021, Chief Judge Barbarra appointed Gary to serve on the appeals committee of the Maryland Court of Appeals related to requests for reasonable accommodations to the Maryland Bar Exam.

He is also the past chief partnerships facilitator and Co-Executive Editor of The Mid-Atlantic Journal on Law and Public Policy: Animal and Disability Reporter — a non-partisan, law, and public policy journal on animal and disability issues that he co-founded. He has a column in the Maryland Daily Record focusing on policy and on his adventures to influence policy as a lawyer with a guide dog. Additionally, he is a feature contributing author at GovLoop.

In his spare time, Gary enjoys the theatre, writing, and sharing time reading his books whilst drinking coffee. His dog or dogs are usually near-by chewing on a bone or playing with toys.